Humza Yousaf has said he is “open” to discussing building undersea tunnels between Scottish islands

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Just seen the National has tweeted this yesterday. Haven't read the news story. It's going down about as well as you'd expect on X/Twitter. I type this on a Scottish island where the ferry service is now so unreliable that people are starting to move away, and island businesses are really feeling the pinch. I'm supposed to be going home tomorrow, not sure if there will be a ferry. Yes, the weather is a big factor, but so are the ancient ferries and unmodernised ports that make it far riskier to operate in marginal conditions. If the SNP can't manage basic infrastructure stuff like this, what's the point even mentioning huge projects like undersea tunnels?

Meanwhile, I see they've banned woodburners from new build properties, even in the remote parts of the Highlands where power cuts are frequent and many houses are off grid.

Ditto Wales. It's a tragedy.

Who's capable of building the tunnels these days? It's a challenging engineering project.

SNP appears to hate rural Scotland. All the policies they pass are written through a central Scotland lens. They don’t understand the issues of rural Scotland nor do they care.

we’ve had campaigns for tunnels to smaller islanders in Shetland for years and nothing has come of it, certainly no support from the SNP

Totally this. Every policy seems to be ruinous for rural Scotland. If they want to spend on infrastructure could they get on with finishing dualling the A9

Never going to happen, instead of dealing in pipe dreams.
Here's an idea deal in realities
The myriad of problems that go unaddressed.
So many can't be arsed to list.

Rural Scotland is not the heartland of SNP support though is it.

I honestly think they are full of pipe dreams. The train connections on the central belt are shocking, never mind building underground tunnels between islands. I just think they think its a cool thing to say, much like LETS BE INDEPENDENT, but then there's no substance or reasoning or workings.

We returned home from Arran on Monday. We were lucky to get over with all ferries cancelled over the weekend because of the weather but I wouldn't have wanted to go in the wind and rain we had anyway!

However last year when we tried to come home it was a shambles. MV Caledonian went off, everyone was queuing for the MV Isle of Arran, bookings all cancelled. We queued from 6am and luckily got on one about 7 hours later.

It's the islanders I feel for. They can't get on or off the island in a vehicle at short notice. Supplies at times hard to get over. Their businesses suffering because people aren't confident about sailing due to the unpredictability of the ferries.

Something needs to be done. A tunnel from Ardrossan to Brodick may be too long and costly but perhaps could be considered on the shorter routes. I guess depends on the infrastructures on both sides.

They need the new ferries in action asap!

This Lorna Slater?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65787695

Seriously? You don't think the central belt has a good train service? Why?

Have you tried taking the train from Central to Waverley?

@PontypandyPioneer, sympathies! In spite of Calmac's doom messages about high risk of cancellation, delay etc etc I am on my way back down south. Phew. I've been going back and forth to Arran all my life (62 years) and the ferry service has never been as bad as it is now.

The costs would go into orbit as all civil engineering projects do.
Tenders we can do it for X millions.
Ah hud on a mintey
We meant Z millions.

Why would you want to when there are regular tains from Queen St. which is a 5 min walk away?

Not from all the stations from Waverley to the west, there isn't.

@Aaron95 because they're rubbish and break down while in the middle of the line so you always end up late to your destination, they get cancelled more often than not without explanation and the prices are through the roof for a poor service.

Absolute fuckwits

The Faroe Islands have an amazing tunnel infrastructure with 4 subsea tunnels. They aren't cheap to use but they definitely show the possible. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55195390

Yes, but the Faroe Islands aren’t governed (I use the term loosely) by an SNP/Greens government.

I mean they haven't even finished dualing the A9 let alone the A90 and they want to build tunnels......

The wood burner and fuel source element ignores the requirements of rural communities which need a reliable source. I very much doubt the majority of them have even spent a night without power and heating in the middle of Winter let alone the 6 days we had up in the North East! It's been a good winter so far with only 2 days of no power!
Our wood burner heated our house, allowed us to cook and help neighbours with hot water bottles and flasks of tea and soup.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g I'm glad you're on your way home! My in laws have been going for a similar time to you and say exactly the same about the ferries. It's a beautiful island, we love it. My husband has been going his whole life (40 years) and me for the last 10. We now take our children who love it too. They just need to sort the ferries out!

This in a nutshell.

They also need constant maintenance and air pumped into them. And somebody monitoring the air (lots of that will be automated) however its a pie in the sky idea that they'd be wasting money to even consider doing a viability study on.

The wood burner thing. Get the house built, completion certificate from planning, then retro fit who the heck is actually going to do anything.

But it just more shite for the next government to undo.

Still waiting for the famous Glasgow airport train link.

There are probably a dozen other major civils projects that the country could do with rather than tunnels for the Isles.

Glasgow Airport link, A9, must be loads of other road widening projects, and rails that.would have an economic benefit to Scotland.